A Grander Entrance You’ll Never Find

Gary’s obsession with notable light fittings – No. 3

I couldn’t resist pausing beneath those great iron lamps at Westminster. Above them glows New Dawn — a modern sculpture of glass and light that breathes with the tides of the Thames. History, craftsmanship, and art in perfect conversation. The old and new of British lighting, sharing the same stage.

I’d come early for a meeting — which, as anyone who knows me will tell you, is dangerous when there’s good lighting about. Halfway up the staircase of Westminster Hall I stopped dead. Two magnificent cast-iron lamps rose before me, all poise and permanence, their globes sitting proud against centuries-old stone. But then my eye climbed higher to the great circular wash of colour glowing behind them.

That’s New Dawn, the light sculpture by artist Mary Branson, installed in 2016 to mark the centenary of the women’s suffrage movement. One hundred and sixty-eight hand-blown glass scrolls, arranged like a rising sun, each lit by LEDs that ebb and flow with the actual tides of the Thames outside. It’s mesmerising, a living reminder that the struggle for equality is still in motion, not frozen in glass.

The whole scene stopped me in my tracks: Victorian ironwork standing shoulder-to-shoulder with contemporary art, both telling stories of progress in their own language of light. It’s a rare harmony of heritage and innovation, proof that lighting doesn’t just illuminate space; it captures spirit.

And it made me think, if the Palace of Westminster can balance history and modernity so gracefully, perhaps our own gardens can too. A little iron, a little glass, a rhythm that responds to its surroundings — light with meaning, not just brightness.

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